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EA1TSAS! 



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ELLIS AND RUSH COUNTIES 



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OF THE 



SOUTHWESTERN 



RIGULTURAL 



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COLONIZATION A! 



"3TOIS2IZ, F^.. 








"EM MAN TIE I0TECT OF HIS DWS HE." 

, / 

BUILD IT BY JOINING THIS COLONY NOW ! 




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Wash 
ington, D. C, in the year 1877, by Henry S. George, M. D. 



OPPIOBES 



PRESIDENT, 

HENRY S. GEORGE, M. D YORK, PA. 

VICE PRESIDENT, 

ADAM S. PFLEIGER i YORK, PA. 

SECRETARY, 

WILLIAM CHAMBERS YORK, PA. 

TREASURER, 

THOMAS HOLLAND YORK, PA. 

GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT, 

JACOB EBERLY HARRISBURG, PA. 

SERECTART OF THE LAND DEPARTMENT, 

ADAM F. GEESEY YORK, PA. 



DIRECTORS : 



William Chambers York, Pa. William R. Stouch York, Pa. 

Jacob Eberly Harrisburg, Pa. J. Cole Green,. . . . Williamsport, Pa. 

Christian Markley York, Pa. Adam F. Geese y, York, Pa. 

Thomas D. Brown.. Wilmington, Del. Joseph C. Holland Hanover, Pa. 

Adam S. Pfleiger York, Pa. Henry S. George, M. D. . ..York, Pa. 

Jacob Shipman Sunbury, Pa. Hon. Abm. Rohrer, Hon^y Grove, Pa. 

Thomas Holland York, Pa, T. Kirk White York, Pa. 

Wm. J. Adams Harrisburg, P a - 



ORGANIZATION. 

This Company is chartered and organized under the laws of the 
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and by the terms of the Charter the 
Company is to exist until dissolved by the mutual consent of its 
members. 

OBJECTS. 

The objects of this Association are, to locate and purchase public 
lands, put them under cultivation, and improve the same for the mu- 
tual benefit of its members and also, to aid and assist working people, 
with limited means, to migrate to, settle upon and cultivate these 
lands, thereby enabling them to procure homes, support themselves 
and families, and educate their children. 

The principal business office of the Company is located at York, 
Pennsylvania, and is called the office of the Home Department. The 
business office of the Company at the Land Department will be loca- 
ted at the City Site of Wadsworth, Cooper Colony, Ellis County, 
Kansas, and is called the office of the Land Department. 

The President, or one of the Vice Presidents, the Secretary and 
Treasurer, and a majority of the Directors, will reside at and remain 
permanently at the Home office, until the colony is substantially estab- 
lished, or as long as it may be necessary to maintain an Eastern office. 
The General Superintendent and the Secretary of the Land Depart- 
ment will reside and remain permanently in the Colony. 

The Secretary, Treasurer, Secretary of the Land Department and 
General Superintendent, are required to give such bonds as the Board 
of Directors will approve, and until the Home office is removed to 
the Colony, the bondsmen must be residents of Pennsylvania. All 
the moneys of the Company must be deposited with the Treasurer, 
and cannot be paid out by him unless, upon the official order of the 
President, approved by the Board of Directors, and attested by the 
Secretary. 

The General Superintendent will receive all moneys for the Colony 
and deliver the same to the Secretary of the Land Department, who will 
keep all accounts for and pay out all moneys at the same, but all 
moneys delivered to him as incomes or for property sold in the Colo- 
ny, must be forwarded at once to the Secretary, and no moneys can 
be paid out by the Secretary of the Land Department, except by spe- 
cific appropriations made by the Board of Directors, and not then, 
unless upon the official order of the General Superintendent, approved 
by the Land and Finance Committee. 

This is not a Stock Company, but an Association of Members for 
Mutual benefit, but Certificates of Membership will be issued to each 
member, and the Articles of Co-operation (the organic law of the 
Company) will be embodied in each Certificate of Membership, and 
the Certificate, together with a duplicate of the same, will be signed 
by the member to whom a Certificate is to be issued, also by the 



— 5— 

President, countersigned by the Treasurer, attested by the Secretary, 
legally witnessed and sealed with the common seal of the Corpora- 
tion, one of which will be delivered to the member, and the other 
one retained by the Company. The matter and contents of each 
Certificate, in so far as it secures to any member any right, privilege, 
immunity or franchise, cannot be changed or altered, without the 
joint consent of each member and the Company, so that each Certifi- 
cate is virtually a contract between each member and the Company, 
and so far as it relates to real estate to be secured to each member, 
will constitute a conditional deed. 

There will be three classes of Certificates of membership issued, 
one to be entitled Certificates of membership of the first class, one 
to be entitled Certificates of membership of the second class, and one 
to be entitled Certificates of membership of the third class. Each 
member of the first class will be required to pay dues in money, at 
the rate of five dollars per month, and in addition will be subject to 
an annual assessment of one hundred dollars, until he or she has paid 
into the Treasury the sum of five hundred dollars, and each member 
of the second class, also each member of the third class, will be re- 
quired to pay dues at the rate of five dollars per month, until he or 
she has paid into the Treasury the sum of two hundred and fifty dol- 
lars, and besides the dues and assessments, each member of the first 
class will be required to pay, at the time of joining the Company, the 
sum of ten dollars as a fee of membership, and each member of the 
second and third classes will be required to pay the sum of five dol- 
lars as fee of membership, and in addition, each member will pay an 
office fee of one dollar upon receipt of his Certificate, and each Di- 
rector, Officer and Agent will pay the sum of one dollar for his certi- 
ficate of office. 

No person can hold more than one Certificate of the first class, (ex- 
cept in trust for minors,) and no person can hold more than two Cer- 
tificates of the second class, (except in trust). No person can hold 
more than one Certificate of the third class, (except in trust), but any 
person may hold one certificate of the second and one of the third 
class, but no more, (except in trust.) 

Any parent or guardian may hold one Certificate of the first, or two 
of the second, or one of the second, and one of the third class, in 
trust, for any minor of any such parent or guardian, and will be enti- 
tled to receive the profits arising from the same, but the land will be 
held and operated by the Company until such minors arrive of age. 
But in case of the death of any such parent, the profits will be applied 
by the Company to the support and education of such minors, unless 
the mother or guardian give to the Company satisfactory security for 
their support and education. 

In case of the death of a married male member leaving no children, 
the widow will be entitled to his Certificate of membership, land, lot, 
etc., but if there is a child or children, the widow will get one-half, 
and the other half will go to the child, or if more than one, divided 
among his children, share and share alike. 



— 6— 

The wife of any member may become a member of the Company 
upon an equal footing with all others. Any member may sell his or 
her Certificate to any person entitled to purchase the same. 

HOW MEMBERS MAY LOCATE THEIR LAND. 

Members may locate upon their lands or lots at any time after the 
legal selection has been made, and make such improvements as they 
see fit, but those who do not desire to take possession of their land 
may have the same cultivated by the Company, and receive the profits 
arising therefrom in money. 

The second and third class Certificates are designed and issued for 
the purpose of affording an opportunity to workingmen by the pay- 
ment of small sums at short intervals, (in money or labor,) to secure 
farm or town homes and the Certificates of the first class are design- 
ed and issued for the purpose of accumulating capital to operate in 
conjunction with labor, and thus work in union and harmony, for the 
mutual benefit of each. 

The working force will be employed by the Company, and paid by 
the month, subject to dismissal for disobedience or disqualification. 
But if any employee who is a member, be discharged for disobedience, 
he will be required thereafter to continue the payment of his dues in 
money. 

HOW LANDS ARE TO BE DIVIDED. 

The land taken by the Company will be divided as follows ; The 
land necessary for village or city sites, will be set aside for that pur- 
pose, and the remainder will be surveyed and laid out into section 
lots (640 acres), and each alternate section will be set aside to be held 
permanently by the Company and cultivated, and the proceeds appro- 
priated by them to improvements upon the lands of the Company and 
upon the lauds of the members, and the other alternate quarter sec- 
tion, will be set aside to be divided among members as the Articles 
of Co-operation prescribe. Each member of the first class will be en- 
titled to one hundred and sixty acres of land in his or her name, and 
each member of the second class will be entitled to eighty acres of 
land in his or her name, as well as an equal share of the profits of the 
Company arising from the land held and cultivated by them, and 
from other sources, in proportion to the money paid by each, and each 
member of the third class will be entitled to a village or city lot of 
one half of an acre in any village or city site, surveyed and laid out 
by the Company, upon any of its lands, and to a share in the profits 
of the Company in proportion to the amount paid in money or labor 
by each member. 

The Company will clear and break up all the land, improve all the 
farms, build all the houses and barns upon the farms, and the houses 
and other improvements upon the village or city lots of the members, 
(unless members desire to clear and break up the land at their own 
expense upon farms selected by them, build their own houses, etc.,) 
and after about three years, (by our estimates and calculation^) each 



—7— 

member of the first class who has paid into the Treasury the sum of 
$500, will have one hundred and sixty acres of land, with about sixty 
acres under cultivation, and sufficient net gains in cash to enable him 
to cultivate his land upon his own account, and at the end of about 
four years, each member of the second cJass, who has paid into the 
Treasury the sum of $250 (either in money or labor) will have eighty 
acres of land, with about forty acres under cultivation, and sufficient 
net gain in cash to enable him to cultivate his land upon his own ac- 
count, And at the end of about four years from the date of the Cer- 
tificate of each member of the third class, who has paid into the Treas- 
ury (either in money or labor) the sum of $250, will be entitled to a 
deed, and possession of a lot of ground, not less than one-half of an 
acre, in any village or city site, surveyed and laid out by the Com- 
pany upon any of its lands, with a house, stable and other improve- 
ments made upon the same, and his due proportion of net gain in 
cash. 

The Company will take possession of all mines, water powers, etc., 
operate mines or lease them, improve water powers for use by the 
Company or to be leased to others, plant and cultivate forests upon 
farms destitute of woodland, lay out the towns upon the Company's 
lands, distribute lots among members entitled to them, and sell others 
to actual settlers only upon ground rent, if the purchaser so desires, 
thereby aiding working men, not members, to more easily acquire 
homes, and also preventing the lots from falling into the hands of 
speculators. 

The profits accruing to the Company, will be applied to improve- 
ments upon the lands or lots of the members, and upon the lands or 
lots of the company, and to public improvements, viz: constructing 
highways, improving water powers, manufacturing, opening and 
operating mines, quarries, etc. 

No person will be employed by the Company except he be a mem- 
ber, unless the necessities of the business require it, and preference 
will always be given to members over others, when qualifications are 
equal. In case an employee be dismissed by a foreman, the employee 
may apply to the General Superintendent, for a permit of transfer to 
another department. 

Each member of the first class will virtually be the owner of three 
hundred and twenty acres of land, and a share in the profits of the 
Company arising from all the mines, water powers, woodlands, vil- 
lage or city lots sold, manufacturing done by the Company, etc., in 
proportion to the money paid into the Treasury by him or her. And 
each member of the second class will virtually be the owner of one 
hundred and sixty acres of land, and a share in the profits as above 
stated. And each member of the third class will virtually be the owner 
of two houses and lots, and a share in the profits as above stated. 

The money paid into the Treasury by the members, will be invested 
in the necessary buildings, agricultural implements, and in breaking 
up and cultivating the soil. 



_8— 

By the Articles of Co-operation, no bonds, mortgages or other 
obligations can be issued against the Company, {except as purchase 
money for lands); it will therefore be impossible for the Company to 
become involved, hence its affairs must always rest upon a solid and 
substantial foundation. With such a. foundation nothing can inter- 
fere with its steady progress, and • uninterrupted prosperity, except 
mismanagement, unfavorable seasons, or uuforseen and unavoidable 
casualties and accidents. 

Against the former, this Company is as well secured as anything 
human can be ; as the officers and directors have been selected with 
great care from among plain, practical men of long experience in 
business, agricultural and mechanical pursuits, men of known integ- 
rity, and the highest character and standing in the communities where 
they live; men actuated by motives of benevolence, to engage in a 
great work of charity, viz : to aid and assist people of limited means 
by the payment of small sums at short intervals, to acquire farms or 
village or city homes ; to lift from degredation and poverty thousands 
of industrious and.worthy people, now condemned to lives of unre- 
quited toil, from the wretched situations in which they are compelled 
to eke out a miserable existence in an unequal struggle for life, into a 
condition of honestly and justly compensated labor and manly inde- 
pendence. 

By the Articles of Co-operation of this Company, no person can 
become a member in any class who is an habitual drunkard, a gamb- 
ler or common loafer, a disorderly or dangerous character, and no 
person will be employed by the Company, who is not a man of peace- 
able, industrious and sober habits ; besides, in the titles of real estate, 
to be issued by the Company to members or others, the sale of intox- 
icating liquors as a beverage, is to be prohibited. 

By the Articles of Co-operation no money can be expended in or- 
ganizing or getting up the Company, beyond the amount of the fees 
of membership, and other fees, and therefore all persons who have a 
desire to join this Association, may feel fully assured that their money 
will be honestly invested, and faithfully applied to improvements of, 
and upon the land of the members of the Company, and that each 
member will get every dollar earned by his labor or investment. The 
officers' of the Company will be paid a reasonable salary for actual 
services performed, and not one cent more! No fancy prices will be 
paid as salaries, or for anything purchased by the Company. Each 
member of this Company will stand upon a perfect equality with all 
others, in proportion to the amount of money or labor expended by 
each. 

No inside rings will be favored with fat contracts or pet jobs. 

No one will amass fortunes from the sweat and toil of the members, 
but if they sweat and toil, they, and they alone, will receive the full 
reward, and "as they sow, so shall they reap" 

The expenses necessary to carry on the business of the Company, 
will be paid, but every dollar over and above such expense, will be 
invested in the land, the requisite buildings, farm implements, tools, 



— 9— 

stock, and in cultivating the lands of the Company and those of the 
members, then the profits of the Company will be applied to improve- 
ments upon the land of the members and the Company, opening and 
operating mines, improving water powers, manufacturing, etc., and 
necessary public improvements in the Colony, after which the profits 
will be divided among the members. 

ESTIMATES AND CALCULATIONS. 

The following estimates and calculations have been made for the 
purpose of finding with some degree of accuracy two results, viz: in 
case a given amount of money be paid in small sums, at short inter- 
vals, by a certain number of persons, into a common fund, thereby 
creating an aggregation of capital, to be invested in cultivating and 
improving lands — 

1st. How long a time will it require for such an investment to put 
a given number of acres of land under cultivation 1 ? 

2d. How long a time will it require for such an investment, to en- 
able each person thus investing to acquire a farm, so fitted out in all 
respects that each member will be able to raise from the land a suffi- 
ciency of farm products to support himself and family? 

In order to be able to answer these questions, it became necessary 
to procure reliable statistics, we have therefore obtained at great ex- 
pense and trouble a large number of statistics upon the subject, from 
the highest authorities in the country, a few of which only, for the 
want of space, we are able to publish in this circular ; and taking such 
statistics as the foundation, we have, at immense labor, made a calcu- 
lation running through four years, which for the want of space we can 
publish only the results found for first year. 

We have taken for our basis of calculation two hundred members 
of the first class, and two hundred members of the second and third 
classes, and corn and wheat as the crops to be raised. The probable 
expenditures of the Company for the first season, will be about as fol- 
lows: 

CALCULATIONS FOR THE FIRST YEAR. 

The probable income and expenditures of the Company for the 
first season will be about as follows : 

It will be necessary to send a few men out to the land early this 
spring to build the houses for the accommodation of the farm hands, 
the outlay for that purpose will be — 

Five wagons at $75 each $ 375 

Two span of horses, harness, etc., say 400 

Tools, etc., say 500 

Lumber, nails, hardware, etc., for houses and barns, say .... 3,500 

Forty yoke of oxen at $75 a yoke, will amount to 3,000 

Forty prairie ploughs, at $20 each 800 

Twenty milk cows at $20 each 400 

Furniture, household goods, farming tools, etc., say 1,000 



—10— 

Five hundred laying hens at 20 cents each 100 

One hundred sheep at $2 each 200 

Two hundred lambs at $1 each 200 

Three hundred young pigs at $2 each 600 

Fifty breeding hogs at $5 each 250 

Wages of 42 men at $20 per month, say ten months 8,400 

Wages of 8 women at $10 per month, for same time 800 

Board for 50 persons at $10 a month, for ten months 5,000 

Seed corn for 1000 acres of land, say 100 

Expense of looking up and locating the land 600 

Sixty yoke of oxen to be bought during the summer to 

break up land, at $75 per yoke 4,500 

Sixty ploughs at $1 8 each 1,080 

Wages of 60 men, 3 months, at $20 per month 3,600 

Board for 60 men, 3 mouths, $10 per month 1,800 

Cost of seeding 2,800 acres in wheat 3,360 

Cash paid as interest on purchase money for 20,000 acres of 

land 3,346 

Salaries and expenses, say 6,000 

Total expenditures of the first year $49,911 

INCOME OF THE FIRST YEAR. 

Each member will pay into the Treasury as follows : — 

Monthly dues for 400 members, first year $24,000 

Annual assessments, first year, for 200 members of the first 

class 20,000 

Office fee for Certificate of membership, at $1 each 400 

The above calculation is based upon the supposition that the 358 
cash paying members will remain at home the first year, or locate 
upon and cultivate their lands at their own expense, while the men to 
be employed on the farms will be selected outside of this number, 
each one of whom must become a member, but will have the privil- 
ege, when employed by the Company, to pay their dues in labor, and 
although they pay their dues in labor, it is still so much income to 
the Company, and therefore must be estimated as such. 

Total income from members $ 44,400 

INCOME FROM LAND. 

One yoke of oxen and one man will, on an average, break up one 
acre of prairie land per day, being 40 acres per day for 40 ploughs, 
2,800 acres in 70 days; 1,000 acres of land planted to corn will yield 
say 30 bushels of shelled corn per acre, or, for 1,000 acres, 30,000 
bushels, which will sell readily in Kansas at 20 cents a bushel, amoun- 
ing to the sum of $ 6,000 

Total income from all sources the first season $ 50,000 

Total expenditure the first year 49,911 

Cash in Treasury at the end of first season $ 489 



—11— 

INVENTORY OF PROPERTY OWNED BY THE COMPANY 
DECEMBER 31, 1878. 

Five wagons at $75 each . . . $ 375 

One hundred yoke of oxen 7,500 

Two span of mares and harness 400 

Lumber, buildings, tools, furniture, etc 3,5u0 

One hundred prairie ploughs 2,000 

350 hogs (fat) $10 3,500 

300 sheep and wool, $3.50 each 1,050 

Four colts at $25 each 100 

2,500 chickens at 15 cents each 375 

Twenty milk cows 400 

Live stock, not counting teams, say 1,000 

Cost of buildings, say 3,000 

Estimated value of Company's land (not increased value of 

land broken up) 140,000 

Increased value of 2,800 acres of land broken up during the 

spring, at $3 per acre 8,400 

Value of 6,000 acres of land broken up during the fall 18,000 

Value of the Company's property the first year $189,600 

Cash in Treasury Dec. 31st, first year 489 

CONDENSED SUMMARY OF THE ABOVE CALCULATION. 

Value of Company's property $ 189,600 

Cash in the Treasury » 489 

Total proceeds $ 190,089 

Total expenditures 49,911 

Net proceeds • $ 140,178 

Capital invested 44,400 

Net gain on Capital invested $ 95,778 

Being a Net Profit of 215 and 6-10 per cent for the first year. 

To ascertain the net gain of each member, multiply the dues, or 
dues and assessments each member has paid the first month, by the 
rate per cent, of the net gain per month, and the product will be the 
net gain of each member upon his or her investment for the first 
month, next add together the dues, or dues and assessments of each 
member for the first and second months, and multiply as before, and 
the product will be the net gain of each for the second month, and 
continue this process by months, until the net gains of each member 
for each month, from the date of his or her first receipt for the pay- 
ment of dues, to the date of settlement, after which add together the 
net gains for each month thus found for each member, and each of 
these sums will be the total net gain of each. 



—12— 

The cost of boarding the men the first few months will be more 
than double the amount it will cost after that time. Ten dollars per 
month for each person is a much larger sum than it will be likely to 
cost. 

The rich prairie grass of Kansas, supplies abundance of the best of 
food for stock ; cattle, sheep, hogs, fowls, etc., thrive and grow fat 
upon it ; even the oxen need no other food while working every day. 
Milk, butter and cheese will cost no more than the expense of milking 
the cows, and making the butter and cheese. 

Potatoes and most other vegetables planted in March, will be fit for 
use in June, and before midsummer pork, mutton and chickens will 
be supplied free of cost. Eggs will cost nothing, and after corn is 
ripe, flour {for the first year) and groceries will be the only articles 
of food to be bought. 

As before stated, we have confined our calculations to the raising 
of corn and wheat only, and the expenditures we have estimated much 
higher than the general average, while we have placed the increase 
less than the general average; besides we have not mentioned the 
most profitable agricultural business in Western Kansas, viz, raising 
hogs and stock, and making butter and cheese, neither have we men- 
tioned the profits to arise from water powers and mines, lime and 
building stone quarries leased, and town lots sold. 

THE ADVANTAGES TO BE GAINED BY PAYING DUES 
OR DUES AND ASSESSMENTS CASH IN ADVANCE. 

The question is often asked, what advantage will be given in case 
dues or assessments are paid in advance ? The following statements 
will answer this question. According to our estimates and calcula- 
tions for the first year we find the net gain on the capital invested 
to be over 215 per cent, per annum, but for convenience of calcula- 
tion we will call it 120 per cent, per annum — being Ten per cent. 

PER MONTH. 

EXAMPLE NO. 1. 
Suppose "A" being a member of the first class, pays the total 
amount of his dues and assessments ($500) in advance — his net gain 
for the first month would be $50 — and the same amount for each 
month intervening from the date that he paid his $500 to the date of 
settlement, amounting in the aggregate, for 3 years and 2 months, to 
the sum of $1,900. 

EXAMPLE NO. 2. 

Suppose "B," being a member of the first class, pays his dues and 
assessments in the regular order as prescribed in the "Articles of Co- 
operation," his net gains will be as follows : At the end of the first 
month "B" pays into the Treasury his dues, $5, and assessment, 
$100; the rate per cent, of the net gain being 10 per cent, per 
month, the net gain on $105 for one month, will amount to the sum 
of $10 50, and the second month "B" will pay his dues, $5, which 
added to the $105 will amount to the sum of $110, and the net gain 



—13— 



on $110 for one month, at the rate of 10 per cent, a month will 
amount to the sum of $11 ; and the third month "B"' will pay his 
dues, $5, which added to the $110, will amount to $115, and the net 
gain on $115 for one month, at the rate of 10 per cent, a month, will 
be $11 50, so that, at the rate of 10 per cent, a month, the net gain 
of each month will increase at the rate of 50 cents a month. The fol- 
lowing table will show the net gain of each month and the total gain 
for the first year, for "B :" 



Dues and Assessments for 1st month. $105 00 



2d 


' 110 OC 


3d 


1 115 00 


4th 


' 120 00 


5th 


' 125 00 


6th 


' 130 00 


7th 


' 135 00 


8th 


' 140 00 


9th 


1 145 00 


10th 


' 150 00 


11th 


' 155 00 


12th 


' 160 00 



Net gain for 1st month $10 50 



2d 
: j d 
4th 
5th 
6th 
7th 
8th 
9th 
10th 
11th 
]2th 



11 00 

11 50 

12 00 

12 50 

13 00 

13 50 

14 00 

14 50 

15 UO 

15 50 

16 00 



Total net gain of "B" the first year $159 00 



The total net gain of "A," the first year, at $50 a month, will 
amount to $600; net profit gained by the investment of "A" over that 
of "B" for the Jirst year, will be $441. 

The first month of the second year "B" will pay into the Treasury 
his assessment, $100, and his dues ($5) for that month, which will 
amount to $105; this sum added to the assessment and dues paid by 
"B" the first year, viz: $160, will make $265, — the net gain of "B," 
(which at the rate of 10 per cent, a month) will for the first month of 
the second year amount to $26 50, and following up this process for 
the second year and adding together the net gains of the whole 24 
months, will show the total net gain for the first two years, which for 
"B" is $510, but the net gain of "A" is $1,200, and the net profit 
gained by the investment of "A" over that of "B," the first two years, 
will amount to $690. 

The first month of the third year "B" will pay into the Treasury 
his assessment, $100, and his dues ($5) for that month, which will 
amount to $105, this sum added to the assessments and dues paid by 
"B" the first and second years, viz: $320, will make $425; the net 
gain of "B" (which at 10 per cent, per month) will, for the first month 
of the third year, amount to $42 50. The net gain of "B" for the 
last fourteen months, of the three years and two months, will amount 
to $640 50, and the total net gain of "B" for the whole three years 
and two months,. will amount to $1,150 50. 

The total net gain of "A" being just $50 per month for each month, 
will, in three years and two months, amount to $1,900: net gain on 
"A's" investment over"B's," '{in three years and two months) $749 50. 
The rate per cent, of net gain for the three years and two months, 
upon the investment of "A' over that of "B" is 149 and 8-10 per cent. 
Thus it will be seen by the above examples and elucidation that those 



—14— 

members who pay dues or assessments in advance, will have the full 
benefit of the net gain on the whole amount of their investments the 
first month, and each month thereafter, during the three years and 
two months, and upon the same pi'inciple the members of the second 
and third classes, will receive profits in the same proportion; still 
those who pay in advance confer a very great benefit upon those who 
are unable to do so, from the fact that by so doing, they contribute to 
the accumulation of available capital, thereby enabling those who pay 
dues, or dues and assessments in the regular order, to procure homes 
much sooner than they otherwise could. 

We clip the following from the Philadelphia Inquirer of May 22d, 
1876: 

DAKOTA AGRICULTURE. 



BIG WHEAT FARMING ON THE LINE OF THE NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 

Special Correspondence of The Inquirer. 

Fargo, Dakota Territory, May 5, 1876. 

A wheat field of 10,860 acres ! That sight has never heen seen. It is 
rapidly unfolding in Cass county, Dakora, and will be on exhibition as soon 
as the laws of prairie agriculture will admit. George W. Cass, of New York; 
Benjamin P. Cheney, of Boston, and Oliver Dalfymple, of St. Paul, are joint 
owners of this great wheat field in the Red river valley. The body of it was 
purchased of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company. The intervening sec- 
tions were bought of the government. 

In June, 1875, the breaking plows were put through 1286 acres of the 
tract. This will be seeded this month to No. 1 Minnesota spring wheat. 
Experience shows that 20 bushels to the acre can be certainly relied on as the 
first crop from this Red river soil. Forty-eight bushels to the acre have been 
harvested the first year in the valley. Crop No. 1 from this partially opened 
farm, therefore, may be credited at 25,700 bushels. The present price of 
wheat at Fargo is $1 10. 

For the development of this farm there will arrive here next week, from 
St. Paul, sixteen teams of horses, ten 14-inch breaking plows, sixteen cross 
plows, fourteen large wagons, six largest seeders, eight self-binding reapers, 
two horse-power fanning mills. In addition to the buildings now on the farm, 
the lumber and materials are on the way for a dining room and kitchen suffi- 
cient for a permanent force of twenty-four men, for one headquarters house, 
four dwellings, two and a half stories high, to comfortably lodge and quarter 
the hands, and four good stables. The work projected for this year is to make 
a crop on the ground broken last year, and to break up in June and July 1280 
acres more. Next year there will be 2560 acres to harvest from, and that crop 
can be fairly estimated at 60, 000 bushels. The property is under the personal 
management of Oliver Dalrymple whose reputation as the most successful 
wheat grower in America is well established. 

It is the intention of the owners of this farm to hasten the breaking be- 
yond the two sections per annum, with which they have commenced. It will 
not be long before the wonderful spectacle can be seen of a wheat field of 



—15— 

10,860 acres — unbroken by fences, uniform in color and growth — waving in 
the wind a sea of golden grain . And the wonder of the spectacle will be en- 
hanced by the fact that only three years ago the plow was an unknown tool 
in the region where this wheat will grow. A plow, as an instrument of agri- 
culture had never been seen in Cass county, Dakota, before 1873 . It had been 
used as a railroad tool by the contractors who built the Northern Pacific 
track; but when they went away their plows went with them. And the won- 
drous spectacle of that great field of undulating wheat, beyond the Red river 
of the north, will be enhanced by the additional fact that two years ago not 
an acre of land in that region had been taken up — not an acre had been pur- 
chased from the Northern Pacific Railroad Company or the Federal Govern- 
ment. 

In the closing paragraph the same writer says : 

The Illinois farmer can get off an acre of his own land only fifteen bushels 
of No. 2 wheat, which at 90 cents gives him $13 50 — a profit of only one dol- 
lar an acre. The Red river valley farmer will harvest certainly twenty bush- 
els of extra No. 1 to the acre, which will sell readily for one dollar, giving 
him $20 to the acre, a profit of $9 50. Last year his wheat averaged $1 10 
at Fargo: and land in the district, precisely like this, has produced 40, 42, 46 
and 48 bushels to the acre. The records of the Hudson's Bay Fur Company 
show yields of fifty bushels. 

A correspondent to the same paper of September 7th, 1877, speak- 
ing of the same farm, says : 

BIG WHEAT FARMS. 

This section will soon rival California in the matter of great wheat farms. 
I give some figures of one or two of them which are fair beginnings for a new 
country: 

Two years ago General George W. Cass, of your State, and Benjamin P. 
Cheney, of Boston, bought from the Northern Pacific Company eleven thou- 
sand acres of prairie land, near the track at Casselton, in Dakota, about 
twenty miles west of the Minnesota line. They formed an alliance with Oli- 
ver Dalrymple, the "Wheat King," of Minnesota, whose large grain farms 
near Minneapolis have been the admiration of tourists, and opened what is 
now known as the "Dalrymple farm " Twelve hundred acres of sod was 
broken in 1875 and sown to wheat. In 1876 twenty-eight hundred acres ad- 
ditional was put in wheat, making a field of four thousand acres, from which 
has just been harvested a crop that is simply magnificent. Three thousand 
acres more have been broken this year for seeding in 1878, which will make 
seven thousand acres of wheat practically in a single field. 

SOME SUGGESTIVE FIGURES. 

Some idea of the scale on which things have to be done at these large 
farms may be gathered from the following, which I clip from the current 
number of our local newspaper the Fargo Times: 



—16— 

"Oliver Dalrymple has five steam threshers now at work on his 4000 acre 
farm at Casselton, each one threshing an average of 1000 bushels per day. 
The grain is hauled directly to the cars as fast as threshed and shipped to 
New York via Duluth and the lakes. He loads and forwards fifteen cars per 
day. At 350 bushels to the car, the crop on this one place will make 257 car 
loads. The yield, from what has been threshed so far, is estimated at 
90,000 bushels, an average of 22£ bushels per acre. Add to this the 3500 
acres on the Grandin farm, in which Mr. Dalrymple has a half interest, and 
which will average equally well, the two farms will produce 168,750 bushels 
of wheat this year." 

The Grandin farm mentioned in the above extract, is another agricultural 
venture along the Northern Pacific, which has reached imposing proportions, 
and proved a bonanza. The Messrs. Grandin Brothers, bankers, of Tideoute, 
Pa., bought a tract of 40,000 acres in Trail county, Dakota, from the railroad 
company, and also availed themselves of the experience and sagacity of Mr. 
Dalrymple by making him managing partner in the enterprise. At the 
Grandin farm 3500 acres of wheat was harvested this year, and 3000 acres 
more are broken for next year's seeding. Mr. Dalrymple, in harvesting the 
crops of these two farms employed forty-two self-binding reapers two hun- 
dred and twenty-five horses, and one hundred and fifty men. Nine steam 
threshers, with a daily capacity of one thousand bushels, are required in 
threshing the grain. The harvest spectacle was a most inspiring and signifi- 
cant one — significant because libelers, great and small, had, for their own 
purposes united to decry the soil and the climate upon which, and under 
which, these superb results have been produced. This idiotic clamor has 
now been forever hushed by the logic of facts too stubborn and too conspicu- 
ous to be ignored. 

It is the intention, I learn, of the owners of the two above-mentioned farms 
to break additional sod-land at the rate of 5000 acres per year until the entire 
51,000 acres shall be in grain. The two farms will then yield over a million 
bushels annually . While dealing with statistics I may as well add that Mr. 
Dalrymple's crop alone will this year require five hundred boxcars or thirty- 
three extra trains of fifteen cars each to carry it over the Northern Pacific to 
the lake, and we are informed that Mr. Dalrymple's net profits this year off 
of that single farm was over $50,000. 

CLIMATE OF KANSAS. 

"The State lies between the 37th and 40th parallels of north latitude, while 
the two counties in which the Southwestern Agricultural and Migration Co. 
have purchased lands, lie between the 38th and 39th parallels, which parallels in 
the United States include Central Missouri, Southern Illinois, Southern Indi- 
ana; a large part of Kentucky, West Virginia, Southern Pennsylvania and 
Maryland, on the East, with Colorado, Nevada and Central California on the 
West, while in Europe they embrace the vine-covered hills of Portugal and 
Spain, the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea, and the sunny clime of 
Southern Italy. Thus, its position not being sufficiently near the equator to 
render it enervating or debilitating, nor far enough north to expose it to the 
severity and rigors of a Northern clime, with an altitude steadily and slowly 
increasing from the Mississippi River towards the Rocky Mountains, where- 
by pure and healthful breezes are wafted across the Prairies; even in the 



—17— 

sultriest summer weather the cool night wind comes to refresh and invigor- 
ate, after the toils of the day are over, while during the severest winters 
bright alternations of sunny days will often intervene, to remind us of the 
not far distant spring. 

To quote from the Third Annual Report of the State Board: "The atmos- 
phere is dry and exhilarating. A person is not so susceptible to the ther- 
mometrical changes as in an atmosphere more moist. This is an important 
consideration in stock-raising in this State, especially on the Prairies. The 
valuable qualities of grasses depend largely upon atmospheric influences. 
In a dry atmosphere they retain their nutritious qualities; in an atmosphere 
charged with moisture, they are overtaken by autumnal frosts, and killed . 
They thus decay in place of remaining during the winter as winter pasture 
for stock." 

The rivers and streams of Kansas, the Smoky Hill and Republican, both 
rising in Colorado, steadily flowing on throughout the State and uniting 
their joint forces with that of the Saline and Solomon, at Fort Riley, to 
form the Kansas or Kaw river, prove most conclusively (the rapidity of eva- 
poration being taken into account) that there is a far greater rate of rainfall 
throughout the length and breadth of the State than hitherto it has had 
credit for. 

KANSAS AT THE CENTENNIAL. 

The exhibition of Kansas in her own building at the International Exhi- 
bition of 1876, at Philadelphia, was in every respect a grand success. 

The Centennial Commission of the State, iii conjunction with the State 
Board of Agriculture, did a noble work in placing before the eyes of the 
world the palpable evidences of the immense fertility, not only of the regions, 
adjacent to the Missouri river, but of the praries themselves : and with one 
sweeping blow, have thrown down the barriers which hid the unexampled 
progress which was going on in spite of the ignorance of the East. 

To-day Kansas stands forth a strong young State, ready and able to assert 
and maintain her proud position as one of the gre.it producing States, The 
cereals, potatoes, flax, castor beans, broom corn, fruit and other products 
exhibited at Philadelphia, are the best evidences of her fertility, and the 
newspapers all over the couutry have been sounding the praises of this lusty 
young State, which dares to step into the arena, and take up the gauntlets, 
of old and well-known States. 

Thousands of actual settlers are pouring in from nearly every State, justi- 
fying the prediction that the emigration into Kansas during the year 187b 
will be unprecedented in the settlement of any other State in the Union. 

THE BEST PART OF KANSAS. 

The following reasons are given why the country along the Smoky Mil 1 
River (in the vicinity of Ellis county) is better than that along the Arkansas 
River, west of Hutchinson : 

1. It is more rolling and better drained. Ague is rarely, if ever, con- 
tracted on the prairies. 

2. The valleys and uplands are not sandy, nor are there any of the 
great ranges of white sand-hills that are to be seen in the latter distiict, an( 
which by their reflection of the sun's rays damage the crops materially 
especially in dry seasons. Flat, sandy lands, with sandy or gravelly sub 
soils, cannot be productive unless under abundant rainfall. 

3. Good building stone and coal are much more abundant. Settlers liv- 
ing many miles south, come across the country with their wagons to haul 
coal from the lands along the Smoky Hill River. 

4. Water is everywhere abundant, and always good, both as to taste anc 
health fulness; almost every well is a spring, and springs on the surface are 
numerous. 

2 



-18- 



5. Grasshoppers select sanely soils in which to'deposit their eggs. 

6. Sandy soils are drifted by the March winds, and by this action the 
roots of the Winter Wheat are ground up, or exposed to the sun's rays. 

7. It is a limestone region, and consequently better for grain. 

8. It has a greater number of water courses. 

9. It has a greater Rainfall. 

10. And because the combination of the above elements make it a better 
country. 

RAINFALL AT FT. ^HAYS AND FORT LARNED, 

As given in the Report of State Board of Agriculture for 1874, (pages 96 

and 99.) 





FORT 


HAYS. 


FORT LARNED. 


TEAR. 


Ellis County, 


Pawnee County, 




on Kansas Pacific Railway. 


on Atchison, Top. and Santa Fe Ry. 


1870 


17.89 inches. 


23.06 inches. 


1871 


30.50 


a 


13.64 " 


1872 


14.90 


" 


7.97 


1873 


22.64 


C( 


16.84 " 


1874 


26.90 


it 


23.01 " 


1876 


35.90 


a 


18.49 " 


1877 


34.23 


a 


31.89 " 


Total 7 years, 


182.96 inches. 


134.90 inches. 


Average per year 


26.14 


a 


19.27 " 



RAINFALL IN KANSAS 

(in inches) 

For Twelve Months, Ending October 31st, 1876. 



STATIONS 

IN 

KANSAS 
On Kansas Pacific Railway. 



| 1876-77. 

[Nov., Dec. 
jJan.&Feb. 

Winter. 



Manhattan. 
Fort Riley . 
McPherson 
Russell .... 
Fort Hays . 



STATIONS 
On Atchison, Topeka and Santa 

Fe Railway. 

Fort Lamed 

Kinsley 

Fort Dodge 



3.18 
1.81 
2.35 
2.44 

5.58 



.52 
.00 
.35 



1876. 



Mch., Apl. 

May & Jun 
Growing 
Season. 

19.81 
13.47 
24.15 
9.38 
19.60 



7.51 

9.62 

12.12 



July, Aug. 

Sep. & Oct. 

Ripening 

Season. 



19.13 
11.60 
10.45 
14.94 
10.72 



8.84 

10.10 

7.36 



Total for 
Twelve 
Months. 



42.42 
26.88 
36.95 
26.76 
35.90 



16.87 
19.72 
19.73 



THE EXTENT OF THE FALL. 

The Agricultural Department furnishes the following statement of the av- 
erage fall of rain in the several States below named, in the four driest months 
of the year, May, June, July and August, for a period of ten years, which 
shows favorably for Kansas: 



—19— 

Inches. ! Inches. 
Kansas 19.19 ! Indiana 15.50 



New Jersey 17.21 

Iowa 17.05 

Connecticut 16.70 



Missouri 15.37 

New York 15.25 

Nebraska 14.96 



Massachusetts 16.47 I Vermont. 14.69 



Pennsylvania 16, 28 

Maryland 16.12 

Kentucky 16.12 

Maine 16.10 

Minnesota 15.91 

Ohio 15.75 



Illinois 14.68 

Rhode Island 14.45 

New Hampshire 14.27 

Wisconsin 14.15 

Michigan 14.01 



TEMPERATURE. 

Mean temperature of the year, 52° 76', which is only 06' below the mean 
of the eight preceding years. The highest temperature was 98°, on the 23d 
of June; the lowest temperature was 5° below zero, on February 1st and De- 
cember 30th, giving a yearly range of 103°. Mean temperature at 7 A. M., 
470 44'; at 2 P. M., 62° 33'; at 9 P. M., 50° 76'. 

Mean temperature of the winter months, 32° 03' (a slight fraction above 
the freezing point), which is 3° 62' above the average winter temperature; 
of the spring, 51° 62', 1° 34' below the average; of the summer, 75° 51', 1° 
26' below the average; of the autumn, 51° 87, 53' below the average.'' 

From the Hays City Sentinel, Sept. 26, 1876. 

In 1874 the mean fall of rain throughout the State was 26.72 inches. In 
Ellis county the fall was 27.06 inches. In 1875 the mean fall was 24.01 (this 
was only for ten months.) In Ellis county the fall was 26.18. This is abso- 
lute and indisputable proof that for the past two years the rainfall in Ellis 
county has been above the State average. 

Below we give a comparison between Ellis county and another portion of 
the State whose sufficiency of moisture is not questioned. 

Rainfall for six years, from March, 1869, to October, 1874, during the 
months named, at Hays and Fort Riley : 

Hays. Rilev. 

March 10.19 6.10 

April 12.56 9.29 

May 20.73 19.27 

June 11.56 21.25 

July 13.29 16.15 

August 13.24 18.61 

September 26.48 22.92 



Total 108.04 113.59 

It will be seen that at Fort Riley, one hundred and thirty-five miles west 
of the Missouri river, and one hundred and fifty-four miles east of 
Hays City, Kansas, there was in six years last past, counting seven 
months each year, only five and one-half inches more rain than at Hays. The 
fact that during that time there was in that country a large amount of culti- 
vated lands, and timber growing, will fairly account for this small difference. 
Who will now say that Ellis county is any dryer than other parts of Kansas ? 
During the months when rain is most needed, we have our full share. 

;ellis county. 

Organized in 1867. Population in 1876, 4,151. Rays City, the county 
seat, with a population of 649, is 289 miles west of Kansas City, and is well 
located near the center of the county, at the point where the railroad crosses 
Big creek. It possesses a well-built stone school house, erected at a cost of 
$6,000 ; also a court house of same material, at a cost of $16,000, which are 



—20— 

the two finest public buildings in the western part of the State. All branches 
of trade are well represented. Fort Hays military reservation, adjoining 
the town is delightfully situated, and almost encircled by a belt of timber. 
It is confidently expected this will he made one of the most important mili- 
tary posts in the West. A United States Land Office is located at this place. 

Ellis . Near the western line of the county, and thirteen miles west of 
Hays City, stands at an altitude of 2,019 feet above the sea level. The rail- 
way company have here a round-house, machine shops, and accommodation 
for the shipment of cattle (employing from 75 to 100 men). It is the end of 
the third division of the road, and is the residence of the division superin- 
tendent. The company have also built here a large hotel, of magnesian 
limestone from the neighboring quarries. The population is about 500. 
There are good stores, school houses and churches. 

At Victoria, a station near the eastern border of the county, there is an 
extensive tract of fine land, the main portion of which was purchased from 
the railway company by Mr. George Grant, of London, England. 

The county is watered by the Smoky Hill river, running through the south- 
ern part and the Saline on the north, with Big creek, a tributary of the 
former, running through the center. The climate here is particularly pure 
and invigorating, warm days in summer, with cool, refreshing nights ; the 
soil is very rich and loamy, and, with good cultivation, is exceedingly prolific. 
Within a quarter of a mile of the town of Ellis, on the farm of Mr. Jno. H. 
Edwards, vegetables of every description, fruit and other trees, have been 
successfully grown during the past six years. Winter wheat put in, in good 
season, grows well and yields abundantly. Hungarian and millet have done 
well, while all kinds of small fruit flourish with ordinary care and attention. 
Pure and good water is attainable at an average depth of from ten to thirty 
feet, and good building stone is abundant. For stock-raising this county 
cannot be surpassed, the greater portion of it being covered with a luxuriant 
growth of rich buffalo grass. The bottom lands produce prairie grass in suf- 
ficient quantities for the supply of hay, while the deep ravines and numerous 
bluffs give good shelter from storms. For sheep farming, the peculiar for- 
mation of the county renders it pre-eminently adapted ; the pursuit of which 
must become a stable business. The dryness of the atmosphere and the na- 
ture of the soil form an effective preventive against rot, while the absence 
of burrs and thorny plants save the loss of wool, which facts combined will 
tend to make this section of the country the great wool market of the West. 
Five villages were erected in this county during 1876 by Russo-German col- 
onists." 

STOCK-RAISING. 

"The lands in Ellis and adjoining counties, offer the greatest facilities for 
stock-raising and grazing purposes. The natural advantages here presented 
for this branch of industry are the abundance of nutritious grasses with 
which the piairies and valleys. are clothed the year round ; the bountiful sup- 
ply of clear and wholesome water (so necessary in this pursuit) afforded by 
creeks and springs everywhere within reach, and, what is of incalculable 
value to the grazer, the temperate and agreeable climate, in which cattle 
are not, in summer, exposed to the injurious attacks of flies and other in- 
sects, so destructive, in more southern latitudes, to the prosperity of the 
owner. Nor have we the long winters and heavy snows of northern climes, 
where cattle have to be housed and fed for half the year. Here they graze 
the entire winter on the prairies and along the streams, seldom requiring the 
use even of hay. Led by instinct to seek, and traveling hundreds of miles to 
obtain, the richest pasture and most abundant water, the antelope and buf- 
falo had here their favorite feeding ground, until advancing civilization 
drove them Westward. During nine months of the year, large herds of buf- 
falo are still to be seen along the line of railway west of Ellis. Large stock- 
yards are established at Brookville, Ellsworth, Bunker Hill, Russell, Ellis 



—21— 

and other points, where cattle can be sold or shipped on commission. From 
seventy-five to one hundred per cent, per annum is a common estimate of 
profits on stock-raising in Central Kansas and Colorado. The increase in 
this business, everywhere along the line, from the foot-hills of the Rocky 
Mountains to the Missouri river, has been very large. This has been greatly 
stimulated by the cheapness of Texas cows, that can be bought for from $6 
to $10, and are crossed upon the domestic stock with much advantage and 
large profits. Thus the man of limited means can, in a short time, have a 
nice herd of cattle, and its rapid increase makes him independent in a few 
years . That Kansas must grow upon her cheap lands and luxuriant grasses 
the beef and wool that is to feed and clothe the million, admits no longer of 
doubt. Here capital is every year investing largely in this safe and profita- 
b'e business. We have ready markets East and West, and Kansas City is 
the largest cattle market in the United States. The mining districts of Col- 
orado, Montana and Nevada are dependent upon our country for their meat 
and supplies. The Kansas Pacific is the main thoi oughfare through this 
vast grazing region; and each year, in the fall, immense trains are run daily 
for the transportation of cattle." 

"Kansas City, the eastern terminus of the Kansas Pacific Railway, is the 
point from whence feeders throughout the Western States obtain their stock 
cattle, and during the season large numbers of them from Illinois, Missouri, 
Iowa and Indiana attend the market. During the past year many new feed- 
ers have sought it as a source of supply." 

WHAT PRACTICAL FARMERS CAN DO. 
[From Russell Record, Dec. 28, 1876.] 
As an evidence of the productiveness of the soil, we give the following 
statements, which have been furnished to us by some of the best farmers in 
the county: 

Russell, Kansas, Sept. 22, 1876. 

This is to certify that I have harvested 190 bushels of wheat from 6£ acres 
of my land in Centre township, Russell county, Kansas. The wheat was 
put in the ground on the 16th of Sept., 1875. Daniel Marsh. 

December 15, 1876. 
This is to certify that I have harvested 200 bushels of spring wheat from 
8 acres of my land in Paradise township, Russell county, Kansas. Sown 1st 
of May. J- T. Davis. 

December 18, 1876. 
This is to certify that I harvested 80 bushels of oats from 2 acres, sown 
April 1st; and 100 bushels of oats from 4 acres, sown about the middle of 
April. My oats will weigh 36 lbs. to the bushel. E. W. Durkee. 

[From Report of State Board of Agriculture for 1875.] 
Statement of W. E. Fosnot, of Ellsworth: 

"The first week in June I sowed a field of buckwheat on upland prairie, 
upon which a crop of sod-corn had been raised the year before. The crop 
yielded 25 bushels per acre. After harvest I sowed to fall wheat, which is 
<loing well." 

CROP OF 1877— MEMORANDA OF YIELDS. 

Edwin Taylor. Fultz Wheat. Sown October 1st, 1876. First crop on 
second bottom land. Yielded 40 bushels per acre. 

Saline County.— S. P. Donmeyer, New Cambria. Bottom land. Yielded 
40 bushels per acre. Red Mat Wheat. 

G. A. Carmany. Blue Stem Wheat. Upland. Yielded 25 bushels per 
acre. 

William Anderson. Pearl Spring Barley. Upland. Yielded 30 bushels 

per acre. 



—22— 

Thomas White. Yellow Dent Corn. Twentieth crop on bottom land. 
Yielded 100 bushels per acre. 

Ottawa County. — S. Conger. Red May Wheat. Upland. Yielded 24 
bushels per acre. 

Russell County.- J. B. Corbett, Bunker Hill. Fourth crop on upland. 
Yield, 35 bushels per acre. Red May Wheat. 

Ellsworth County. — John Dellinger, Bosland. Red May Wheat. 
First crop on upland sod. Yield, 24 bushels per acre. 

Ellis County. — Grown by Hays City Town Co. Red May Wheat. On 
130 acres of upland sod. Yielded 20 bushels per acre. 

Grown by the Railway Company at Ellis, Kansas, 300 miles from Kansas 
City. First crop on upland sod. Yielded 32 bushels per acre. Red May 
Wheat. 

RESULTS AMONG THE RUSSIAN COLONISTS. 

Jacob Krug, 10 miles south of Russell, writes, under date of Sept. 27th: 
' ' I also wish to inform you of my crops thus far. My winter wheat will yield 
32 bushels per acre; my rye 31 bushels per acre, and my oats 55 bushels per 
acre." 

CASH PRICES OF WHEAT AND CORN, SEPT. 18, 1877. 

Showing the difference between the stations on the Kansas Pacific Railway, 
named below, and the principal grain markets of the United States: 



Winter Wheat, No. 2 

Winter Wheat, No. 3 

Spring Wheat, No. 1 

Spring Wheat, No. 2 Li 

Corn | .581.58-J 



O 



W 



o 



1.16 1.00 
1.07± .90 



US 

so 

l-B 



1.11* 



.30* 



98 '95 
90 85 
.. 75 
. . . . 65 
25 20 25 



W 



90 98 
80 91 
..!78 
.. 76 
.. 30 



o 

in 

K 



1.00 

.85 



.25 



FRUIT. 

Kansas ranks high, and will rank much higher, among her sister States, 
in the cultivation of fruit of all kinds. In the counties on K. P. R'y there 
are no less than 38,452 acres of orchards, vineyards and nurseries in culti- 
vation, and such is the extreme richness and fertility of the soil, that all 
varieties peculiar to this latitude grow luxuriantly. In the eastern settled 
portions of the State, apples, pears, peaches, plums and cherries are a com- 
plete success. The uplands and climate of Kansas seem to be specially 
adapted to grape culture. The rains of April, May, and part of June, are 
conducive to a large and healthy growth; while the pure, dry and warm 
atmosphere of the subsequent months imparts the finest flavor to the fruit; 
leaving no doubt as to the future rank of Kansas among wine-growing 
States. It should not be omitted that the wild grape, wild plum, goose- 
berry, blackberry and strawberry are native to the soil. 

It needs only to be stated that Kansas took the premium over all other 
States at the fair of the National Pomological Society, at Philadelphia, in 
1869; at the fair of the American Pomological Society, at Richmond, in 
1871, and has taken the highest premiums at the fairs of the Pennsylvania 
Horticultural Society, at the St. Louis fair; at the State fairs of New York 
and New Hampshire; at the New England fair at Lowell, Mass.; and re- 
member the grand display at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia or* 
our "National Birthday." 



—23— 
COAL. 

The coal seams from the middle carboniferous, or true coal measures, pro- 
duce bituminous coal, which will compare favorably with the shaft coal of 
Illinois and Western Pennsylvania. There is considerable variation in the 
quality from different localities on the same vein, but it is always at least a 
fair article for market. In many places it is found cropping out, and is 
readily obtained. The cost at the mines varies from 3 cents to 12£ cents per 
bushel — according to depth of shaft or distance to be transported. The Leaven- 
worth coal shaft is the deepest, being 710 feet, and the vein is 30 inches thick. 
Of the organized counties through which the Kansas Pacific Railway passes, 
seventy-five per cent, have abundant supplies of coal, ranging from a few 
inches to 200 feet below the surface, and varying in thickness from 6 to 36 
inches. These statistics are obtained from the Agricultural Report of the 
State of Kansas for 1875. 

Along the Kansas Pacific Railway coal is found in Pottawatomie, Wabaun- 
see, Davis, Ottawa, Lincoln, Ellsworth, Russell, Ellis and Trego counties. In 
Ellsworth, Russell and Ellis counties it crops out on the face of the bluffs of 
the Smoky Hill river and other streams, and is sold at the mines at $3.00 per 
ton, and is delivered in the towns of Bosland and Russell at $4.00 per ton. 
Within no other Section in a sparsely timbered region are 
settlers so secure on the puel question. Settlers from along the Ar- 
kansas Valley come with their wagons sometimes 40 or 50 miles to supply 
themselves with this coal, and say they cannot go back without a load, as 
"not even a hazel-bush grows where they come from." In the southern 
part of Russell county (east of and adjoining Ellis) none of the farmers are 
more than four miles away from coal, the mines being so numerous along 
the Smoky Hills. 

TIMBER. 

The experimental farm established by the K. P. R'y at Bosland in 1870 
demonstrated in three years that the ailanthus, box-elder, ash, catalpa, Cot- 
tonwood, elm, honey locust, maple, black walnut, Austrian and Scotch pine 
and red cedar will grow rapidly there, and similar experiments at Ellis were 
equally successful, seedlings at both places attaining a growth in one 
year equal to that chronicled in the catalogues of nurseries east of the Mis- 
sissippi River. 

Trees and shrubbery for planting by actual settlers, between Brookville 
and Trego, are carried free by the K. P. R'y. 

FENCING. 

Hedges grow so rapidly that they make the cheapest and most durable 
fence that can be used. The Osage orange can be planted by contract, and 
warranted, at thirty-five cents per rod. It becomes, in three years, a suffi- 
cient barrier against trespass from cattle. 

MARKET PRICES. 

One of the first and most important items for consideration to the man 
who contemplates settling in a new country, must be the market prices of 
the commodities he is likely to require. The following table gives approx- 
imate prices at the different points named — remembering that prices there, as 
elsewhere, fluctuate according to the seasons, etc. : 



—24— 
MARKET RATES— SEPTEMBER, 1877. 

ARTICLES. 



RUSSELL. 



Pine Lumber, per M $17 00 to $30 00 

Lath, per M .-...' 3 00 to 

Shingles, per M j 3 50 to 

Lime, per bush j 

Cement (Louisville), per bbl 4 00 to 

Flour, per 100 lbs I 2 25 to 

Potatoes, per bush 

Apples, per bush 70 to 

Eggs, per doz 12f to 

Butter per ft> . . . 

Lard, per lb 14 to 

Hams, per lb 14 to 

Tea, per ft) 75 to 

Coffee, per ft) 25 to 

Soap, per ft> 8 to 

Candles, star, per ft) 

Sugar, per ft) 

Salt, per ft> 

Coal Oil, per gal 

Harness, double 20 00 

Earm Wagons i 75 00 

Single-shovel Plows 

Double-shovel Plows j 

Medium two-horse Plows I 13 00 



50 

50 
25 

50 
75 
50 
00 
20 
15 
16 
16 
20 
33 



10 to 



to 
to 



Sulky Hay Rakes 

Horses 

Oxen, per yoke 

Coal, per ton (25 bush) 
"Wood, per cord. 



25 00 

25 00 

75 00 

3 00 

3 50 



18 

161 

1. 

25 

35 00 
90 00 

5 50 

6 50 
17 00 
30 00 

to 150 00 
to 100 00 
to 7 00 
to 5 00 



to 
to 



Note. — As good limestone exists in great abundance everywhere in the Smoky Hill re- 
gion, the price of lime will depend upon the quantity burned. 

We publish the above extracts, which we have selected from 
among hundreds of a similar character, in order to demonstrate, by 
the unanswerable logic of facts, that when a given quantity of land 
is cultivated upon a large scale, in a systematic and business-like 
manner, it is possible, by the aid of machinery, to make the same 
land net much larger profits than can be realized from land cultivated 
in a small way ; and that when these profits are invested as fast as 
made, in improvements and in cultivating more land, it will require but 
a few years for each member of the Company to become independent. 

But the net gains from the cultivation ot the farms mentioned in 
the above extract are confined to one single product, while stock- 
raising must, from the nature of the climate in the Dorthwest, always 
prove a business of a secondary consideration, as the stock must be 
housed and fed during the long tedious winters; but in the more 
genial climate of Western Kansas, where stock do not need to be 
housed, but run at large and pick their own living during those months 
called winter, and live and thrive without one dollar of cost other 
than the expense of looking after them, stock raising becomes a 



—25— 

greater source of profit than that of raising grain ; still facts will bear 
us out in the assertion that the raising of wheat and corn in Western 
Kansas is equally as profitable as in the north-west, while there are 
numerous other crops which prove a source of great profit in Kansas 
that cannot be raised at all in the north-west, such as tobacco, sweet 
potatoes, pea-nuts, broom corn, fruits, and many others affording equal 
if not greater profits. 

Sweet potatoes and pea- nuts, we are informed, yield in Western 
Kansas, on an average, three to four hundred bushels per acre, and 
we are assured from reliable sources that they are equally as good as 
corn for fattening hogs, and that a bushel of these potatoes or pea-nuts 
are for that purpose equal to a bushel of corn. 

It is a universally admitted fact among those who are informed 
respecting the soils of different regions, that the soils of Western 
Kansas are far superior in point of richness and productiveness to 
those of any other section of the country. 

Add all these natural advantages to those to be derived from the 
systematic colonization of a large tract of land, and we may sum up 
this subject thus: — A population of farmers and mechanics, placed 
upon the land in a large body in such a region, and employed in 
cultivating the soil and building the houses, will necessarily de- 
mand a town or towns, together with all branches of business and 
industries required to supply a civilized people with the necessaries 
and comforts of life, opening up a field for enterprise and the profita- 
ble investment of capital, and opportunities for young men of means, 
or without means, to locate, grow up with and prosper in a new com- 
munity, that cannot be had or found in old settled regions. 

Under the system adopted by this Company, a man of means with 
growing up or grown up children, cannot in any way better provide 
for them, than by taking out a membership in this Company for each 
one of his children, as it must prove less expensive and far more ad- 
vantageous than the best life insurance, for several reasons : 

1st. Because he is required to pay a given sum by installments for 
a few years only, instead of paying until he dies, and is certain to 
become the owner of a farm. 

2d. The money paid by him will be invested in improvements on 
his own land, every cent of the profits of which goes to him or his 
children, instead of being appropriated to enrich a few at the expense 
of many. 

3d. For each three members of the first class, one farmer or me- 
chanic can be kept constantly employed the first year, cultivating the 
land, building and making improvements upon the same, and making 
profit for those who invest their money and remain at home, and the 
second year the profits will perhaps enable the Company to double 
the working force, and increase in like proportion the third and fourth 
year. 

4th. Unlike life insurance, the members will not necessarily be 
obliged to die to obtain the benefits thereof. 



—26— 

5th. Those who invest their money in this Company, invest it in 
land and land improvements, and if there should not come out of it 
one dollar of profit, other than breaking up the land, putting it under 
cultivation, and building the houses, for the next five years, the bare 
fact of placing a population of farmers and mechanics upon it, thereby 
of necessity calling into existence a town or towns, and with it a de- 
mand for railroads, the rise in value of the land itself will make the 
certificate of every member of the Company worth several times the 
cost of it. For example, each member of the first class will be the 
practical owner of three hundred and twenty acres of land ; suppose 
that land in four years will reach a marketable value of ten dollars 
per acre, (a very moderate price) each Certificate of membership of 
the first class would be worth just $3,200. 

6th. And as the money paid by each member will go at once into 
land and land improvements {if properly and judiciously invested,) 
it will be fixed in a kind of property that cannot be lost; it will need 
no insurance; thieves cannot steal it; fire cannot burn it; the torrent 
may inundate and war may devastate, but they cannot destroy it, and, 
except by the folly of the members themselves, nothing in civilized 
society, at least where law is omnipotent and supreme, short of the 
divine hand of the Creator through an earthquake, can deprive each 
member of his land. 

One of the fundamental objects of this Company is to induce those 
persons who are able to become members in the first class, paying 
dues and assessments in the regular order, or one member of the first 
class paying the whole amount of his dues and assessments in advance, 
to join the Company, for the simple reason that for the first year it will 
require that sum of money to enable the Company to send out and 
keep employed one member of the second or third classes. By this 
means a large number of working men may be employed by the Com- 
pany in cultivating the soil, building houses, etc.; and every working 
man who desires to acquire a home, if he is a sober, steady, industrious 
and respectable citizen, can find at least three friends whom he can 
induce to become members for the sake of aiding him to secure a farm, 
through which he may be able to obtain the means to support his family 
and educate his children. 

The profits to be realized by this Company, will be gathered from 
the hidden riches of the soil, and by a union of capital invested by 
honest men, with industry and skilled labor, upon just and equitable 
terms, the exhaustless resources of nature, will be made to unfold her 
bounteous wealth, and from a population of impoverished and un- 
happy working men and women, we shall endeavor to raise up a 
community of hard-working, industrious and virtuous people, sur 
rounded with the comforts of life, and blessed with peace and plenty. 

In presenting to the public this new system, we shall not be sur- 
prised if at the threshold of our enterprise we are met with all man 
ner of evil imputations, and that we should be obliged to encounter 
the opposition of selfish men, who in most cases from the spontaneous 
impulses of their own bad hearts, are ever ready with the meanest in- 



—27— 

sinuations, and accusing others in advance of whom they know no 
evil, of the vilest motives, to this class we. have nothing to say, for 
out of their own mouths they condemn themselves. But there are 
still other, and good and valid reasons, why men should look with 
suspicion upon any scheme presented to them for their consideration, 
by which capital and labor are to operate together, for it is not strange 
that a wronged and suffering people should look upon all associations 
of capital with labor, as heartless and supremely selfish, when they 
behold the starvation wages, forced poverty, ill health and death of 
the helpless victims of soulless corporations/ whose unjust profits, 
wrung from misery, are the offspring Of cruel and inhuman laws; and 
,in view of the fact that there exists, and always has existed, an order 
of men, a kind of pseudo "patricians," seeking to subsist upon legal 
privilege, and who, by artfully devised schemes under the cover of 
law, gotten up in modern times, by financial gamblers, for the pur- 
pose of enabling a class of legal shylocks, through deceitful and dis- 
guised processes, to levy taxes Tor private profit upon the business 
public and the confiding and unsuspecting producers of wealth, laying 
communities under tribute, and without just equivalent, imposing ob- 
ligations upon them they cannot meet, and burdens they cannot bear, 
until, as a moral protest ; against the outraged rights of the producing 
people, the industries of the country have been crushed, forcing the 
business public into hopeless bankruptcy, and the nation itself into 
anarchy and blood. 

With these facts before them, it is no wonder that confidence in 
the integrity of the ruling classes is lost, since the people have been 
so repeatedly betrayed by pretended friends, into the hands of their 
enemies, until they are led to exclaim, like Washington, upon learn- 
ing of the treachery of Arnold, "who can we trust now?" 

Thus the public mind being in a condition of suspicion and distrust, 
in order to insure the success of a popular movement of this kind, it 
becomes necessary to secure public confidence, to this end we would 
refer the people to any banking house in the country, through whom 
they may be able to obtain reliable information respecting the char- 
acter and standing of the officers and directors of this ' ompany, there- 
fore we invite impartial and honest investigation, that facts may speak 
for themselves. 

The well to do citizens of York, and most other places in Pennsyl- 
vania and the Northern States, from the warm impulses of their own 
generous hearts, contribute annually thousands of dollars to a fund 
called "charity," to prevent the indigent poor from absolutely freez- 
ing and starving to death, an eminently commendable virtue But, 
gentlemen, did it ever occur to you that so great an evil does not exist 
without a great fundamental cause, and that after all your noble ef- 
forts, the means applied are but temporary reliefs, and that much of 
this money at least might have been invested in such a way as to 
enable many of these helpless people to help themselves, so that in- 
stead of being an unmitigated burden upon you pecuniarily, say noth- 
ing of the vice and immorality always sooner or later sure to follow 



—28— 

extreme destitution, you would help these people to become self-sup- 
porting and independent. Here then gentlemen is an opportunity 
offered, by availing yourselves of which you will be able to unload 
some at least of your burden, not by contributing your money to be 
used up in affording transcient help, and for all purposes of usefulness 
thereafter forever lost, but by placing your money where you can aid 
these people, not only to acquire self-supporting homes, and that too 
without the loss of a dollar, on your part, but on the other hand, by 
making such a disposition of your means, you will, if you desire, be 
able to appropriate the profits arising therefrom, so as to continue this 
great work, the noblest of charities, indefinitely, and therefore we call 
upon you to examine carefully the. By-laws and Articles of Co-opera . 
tion of this Company, and if you approve them, and believe the cause 
to be a just and worthy one, unite your efforts with ours, and assist 
us to bring about this happv consummation. 

There is much more that might be said upon this subject, but at 
present we neither have the time or space to do so. 

INSTRUCTIONS TO THE LAND LOCATING COMMITTEE. 

The committee sent out by the Company, were instructed to ex- 
plore the lands of the south-west, west of the Mississippi, and to 
select lands possessing the following advantages : 

1st. A healthy climate free from malaria. 

2d. A well watered region, affording ample and continuous water 
power. 

3d. A section free from excessive summer drouths. 

4th. Prairie land, with a soil adapted to raising wheat, corn, to- 
bacco, stock, &o. 

5 th. A region where timber can be obtained at cheap rates for 
building and manufacturing. 

6th. Easy and cheap access to markets. 

The Land Selecting Committee were instructed that, in case all 
these advantages could be found in any one section, except the first, 
that they should not locate land in such a region, because health 
above all things, is the first to be considered. 

REPORT OF THE LAND SELECTING COMMITTEE 

OF 

THE SOUTHWESTERN AGRICULTCRAL AND MIGRATION 
COMPANY, OF YORK, PENNA. 

York, Pa., March 25, 1878. 
To the Board of Directors and Members : 

H Gentlemen — In accordance with your instructions your Land Se- 
lecting Committee visited the States of Texas, Arkansas and Kansas, 
and examined carefully the lands, soil, climate, natural advantages 
and disadvantages, products, etc., of those States ; and, after a thor- 
ough and impartial investigation, they have decided that the State of 
Kansas is best adapted to the necessities and tastes of our people. 
We have therefore contracted for twenty thousand acres of land, of 



—29— 

the Kansas Pacific Railway Company, in Ellis and Rush counties, 
Kansas. The land is situated about eleven miles south of Ellis, 
on the Kansas Pacific Railway, the northern boundary beginning 
about two miles north of the Smoky Hill River, and extending 
south, including the river, to the end of the railroad grant, a distance 
of about nine miles; its western boundary is the boundary line of 
Ellis county, and its eastern boundary is now being located by our 
acting civil engineer, Mr. Thomas S. Moorehead, assisted by the 
Agent of the Railway Company. 

The Smoky Hill River enters the land upon the western boundary, 
and runs in an eastern and southeastern direction a distance of eight 
or nine miles, to the limits of the eastern boundary. 

This river is a living stream, supplied by numberless springs ; the 
water is very clear, and most excellent for drinking. The fall along 
this river, and the volume of water, is sufficient to make very exten- 
sive water power, at distances of at least one or two miles apart. 

The site we have selected for Wadsworth City is, to the minds of 
your Committee, a beautiful location, and, besides possessing many na- 
tural advantages, to those who have an eye for the beautiful is one of 
the most grand and picturesque spots that could be desired. The ele- 
vation along the river bank is from ten to twenty feet above the bed, 
rising gradually (towards the south) to the Smoky Hills, a distance, 
in the broadest place, of about a mile and a half, forming a gently 
inclined plane, and extending about three miles along the bank of the 
river. 

On the southern boundary of the city site rises what is called the 
Smoky Hills, consisting of bluffs from fifty to two hundred feet above 
the river bed, divided by numerous ravines, running in all directions, 
but finding their outlet to the river. These hills and ravines are, gen- 
erally speaking, not fit for general cultivation, the soil being thin and 
light, but will make excellent grazing or pasture grounds for stock. 
( They are not included in our purchase.) Upon the northern bank 
of the river, opposite the city site, are clusters of broad, high bluffs, 
divided by deep ravines. Upon this bank, in a central part of the 
city site, is located a slate bluff, rising perpendicularly above the 
river bed to a height of about fifty feet, and extending along the river 
bank four or five hundred feet. This bluff is composed of a solid 
strata of slate, from ten to twelve feet high above the river bed, and 
upon either side of this bluff are ravines, which extend a mile or more 
to the north. Along these ravines are a number of small lakes, con- 
taining very clear and excellent drinking water. These lakes are 
supplied from living springs, and bear evidence of having been made 
by beavers, as we found one dam freshly made, and covered with the 
tracks of animals; also at the head of these lakes we found the holes- 
of the beavers, and traps set by trappers. By making dams at the 
mouth of the ravines these lakes may be made into two large ones r 
useful for fish culture, summer bathing, and in winter to furnish a 

\ 
\ 

\ 



—30— 

supply of ice. If the slate in the bluff is of such quality as to be 
easily split into roofing slate, it will prove a great source of conve 
nience and profit to the colony. 

A very peculiar kind of magnesia limestone exists under the surface 
of the land in Western Kansas, and limestone quarries are found al- 
most everywhere under the bluffs. This stone is pure white, also 
dark straw color. Can be sawed, planed and cut with common wood 
working tools, as easily as soft wood, and yet, when used in build- 
ings, is as durable as the hardest granite. The men employed by the 
Company may, at times when there will be no farm work to be done, 
be set at work quarrying and putting these stone into shape for build- 
ing purposes, to be used by the Company, sold to its members or to 
others. In other words, the manufactui'e of this stone into building 
material may be made a great source of profit, as it cau be sawed and 
planed by machinery, and turned and carved into all sorts of orna- 
ments for buildings, and for other purposes ; besides, it makes most 
excellent lime, and with the discovery of coal in the vicinity of our 
city site, the existence of which we have abundance of evidence, it 
will prove a vei*y useful product, not only for building, but for farm- 
ing. 

Coal has quite recently been found, and is now being mined, on 
land near the railroad, about four miles east of Ellis, and as it is found 
all along the Smokey Hills east of Ellis county, it is quite likely it 
will also be found upon the lands of this Company. 

The soil of these lands is from two to six feet deep, seldom less 
than two, usually with a clay sub-soil, and is composed of a rich black 
mucky loam. The land in Ellis and Rush counties is rolling prairie, 
with here and there ranges of hills and ravines. It is believed that the 
mineral wealth of Ellis and the adjoining counties is very extensive, 
and when a population of industrious and enterprising farmers, me- 
chanics and miners (such as this Colony is composed of,) settle in 
there, this region will become a rich and prosperous country. 

This part of Kansas is one of the most healthy sections in the 
United States, the altitude being twenty-five hundred feet above the 
level of the sea. The air is necessarily pure, and highly charged with 
oxygen, an essential element in the treatment of consumption, catarrh 
etc. The nature of this country is such that malarial diseases are 
almost impossible, as there is no standing or dead water anywhere ; 
all the streams being supplied by living springs. There is not a 
swamp or marsh to be found in this part of Kansas. 

In many of the bluffs is found a kind of cement of a very hard and 
adhesive character, analogous to water lime, and it is said when 
ground up, may be used for the same purposes. 

The crops raised in this region are, for merchantable purposes, 
wheat, broom corn, tobacco, etc. But wheat is the crop to be relied 
on chiefly for profit ; this produce yielding from twenty-five to forty 
bushels per acre. The price of wheat in Western Kansas is from 



—31 — 

seventy- five cents to one dollar per bushel. The quality of wheat 
raised in Kansas is equal to any raised in any part of the United 
States. Corn yields from seventy-five to one hundred bushels per 
acre, and sells at this time at from twenty to thirty cents per 
bushel. Corn is raised in Kansas chiefly for fattening stock, by which 
means farmers are enabled to realize from fifty to seventy-five cents 
per bushel. 

Vegetables of every kind are raised in great abundance in all parts 
of Kansas. Fruit trees thrive and grow readily, and in the older settle- 
ments very fine peaches, pears, apples, plums, grapes, etc., are raised 
in large quantities. Water melons grow almost spontaneous, and 
equal in size -and quality to the best productions of New Jersey or 
Maryland. 

There is very little timber in Western Kansas, but good building 
lumber can be shipped to Ellis or Hays City and sold at twenty to 
twenty-five dollars per thousand feet. The price of coal at Hays or 
Ellis, shipped from the East is, at this time, about seven dollars per ton. 
Coal from the mines in the Smoky Hills, in the adjoining counties, 
can be had at from $2.50 to $4.00 per ton. 

Texas cattle can be bought at Ellis, at about nine dollars per head, 
and the numerous grazing fields west of Ellis is the great stock fatten- 
ing region of the United States. One hundred bushels of corn cost- 
ing say twenty dollars, is suflicient to fatten five steers, which will sell 
at Ellis for from thirty to forty dollars per head, netting at least, one 
hundred per cent. 

Your Committee having to the best of their ability carried out your 
instructions, we are, gentlemen, 

Very respectfully your obedient servants, 

H. S. GEORGE, M. D., 

Chairman of the Committee. 

The By-laws and Articles of Co-operation are published in a book 
of forty-one pages, and will be sold at fifteen cents each, sent by mail 
to any address, upon receipt of fifteen cents, in currency or postage 
stamps. As this is a mutual Association, all expenses for printing must 
be borne by the members : hence, it is but just that the public who 
desire information respecting this company, should pay their share 
at least of such expense. 




016 094 345 2 • 



-32— 



WHY JOIN THE SOUTH-WESTERN AGRICULTURAL AND 
MIGRATION COLONY AND GO TO ITS LANDS IN ELLIS 
AND RUSH COUNTIES, KANSAS ? 

Because you have the very finest and every variety of land to select 
from — River Bottom, Undulating Valley and Rolling Prairie. 

Because the fertility of the soil cant be beaten. Where else can be 
found a soil of such rich, dark loam, varying from three to fifteen feet 
in depth? 

Because the purity of the climate is unsurpassed — long Summers, 
short Winters, and genial skies. 

Because it has the finest Limestone lands in America. 

Because, in proof of this, the unprecedented < Tops proclaim Kansas 
to be the Banner Wheat and Com State of the Union. 

Because Springs of purest water are to be found in every section. 

Because of its abundant Water Power for manufacturing purposes. 

Because, for Stock Raising and Wool Growing, the nutritious 
character of its wide grassy ranges has been proved invaluable. 

Because all its lands are within an easy distance of the Great Iron 
Thoroughfare of the West. 

Because Towns will rapidly spring up with all their attendant 
advantages. 

- Because where this Colony locates, the moral and religious welfare 
of its members will be duly cared for. 

LAST BUT NOT LEAST. 

Because the terms of this Colony are such, that by paying small 
sums at short intervals, men of limited means can easily procure 

SELF-SUPPORTING HOMES. 

Because in no other way can so small an amount of money be in- 
vested with such large returns. 

AH letters requiring answers must contain a three cent postage 
stamp. 

For further particulars, as to joining this Colony, &c, apply to 

H. S. GEORGE, M. D., 



PRESIDENT, 



YOUK, PA. 



N 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




